This is not the time to start packing up all your winter stuff and start bringing out all your summer stuff. Personally, I don’t trust Mother Nature until the 4th of July.

This month’s photo is from when I was visiting a friend’s home. I did not have my wide-angle lens with me to cover the size of this room. These people have eight children.

Back in my Mother’s days that was no biggie, my Mother comes from a family of ten, and my Father comes from a family of nine. But I love talking to this family because when I think I have a hectic weekend coming up where my wife and I taking our son around, hearing what they do in a weekend, I don’t feel that bad anymore.

Believe me, summer can not come soon enough for me. As you may know, I would move to Florida in a minute. When I lived in Florida I used to come up to Connecticut in October, look at the leaves, and go right back to Florida.

This year, my son wanted to go snowboarding. I do not snowboard, I do not do any sport that glorifies winter. Maybe basketball, but that’s inside.

So we drove up to the Poconos, him, a friend, and myself, to go snowboarding. My first impression: do you really want to do something where you have to sign a piece of paper that says if I get hurt it’s not their responsibility, I’m doing this at my own risk? I’ve gone to rivers and lakes many times and have never had to sign a waiver and have had a wonderful time.

Now I’ve got him all geared up - snowboard, helmet, lift pass, and they’re off. The only things I know about a snow lodge I learned from James Bond movies. Fireplaces, snow bunnies walking around, drinking warm brandy. This was not like that. It was more like a school cafeteria with large windows, badly heated, and lots more wood in the decor.

My son loved it. He went twice this season. On the way home, he was asking where he could go sand skiing. He knows somewhere there’s a place where you can do that. It’s great being young. I think the best thing about it is that you can heal fast.

I guess by now you’ve figured out I wasn’t going snowboarding or skiing with them. (But snowboarding does look fun.) I brought my computer to do editing.

But then I found out that this is one of the best people-watching places I’ve seen since Vegas. I’m watching people come off of the mountain totally beat up - red faces, sweaty, helmet hair - a funny combination is being sweaty and cold at the same time.

A big highlight was watching a grandmother and a mother getting her son ready for snowboarding. It honestly looked like a 2-man pit crew working at a Nascar race.

There was another father trying to convince his son to get off of his iPad and come skiing. I really wanted to walk over there and see if he wasn’t playing a skiing game on his iPad.

After sitting there for four hours, I noticed that this is the same expression that people have coming back from the beach. People come off with their chairs and umbrellas, red faces, sweaty, it looks like they had a miserable time.

The star of the day for me was this little girl who was no more than 5. She was absolutely pinked out - helmet, gloves, skis, everything, pink. I was lucky enough to see her come down the hill with her father. She was a great little skier, skiing with her father while she was holding on to a rope or something. I guess she made it to my star status because she was so small and she had so much stuff on it made her look like a pink ping-pong ball. You could have rolled her down the hill and she wouldn’t have gotten wet, cold, or bruised.

After being there for eight hours, I realized that people-watching is the best form of free entertainment in the world. You’ve got the drama of a big brother trying to tell a little brother he can go on a diamond hill but the little brother’s crying because he’s too scared. You can always tell when people are on a date compared to the people who are married. But overall, for me it just reinforces my belief that life is just a bunch of experiences. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, but most of the time they’re going to be entertaining. ...Maybe not immediately, but later.

So next year, if you notice around this time I’m sending my assistants out to do my jobs for me, it’s probably because I tried to go snowboarding and am laid up in bed with sore knees. It’s funny when you want to try something even when everyone around you is saying, “No, don’t do it.”

For all you people who love the winter, it’s coming to an end. All you people who can’t wait for the summer, it’ll be here soon. 

Thanks for all the comments last month! Just think: only 334 days until Valentine’s Day!

- Kevin S. Nash

Photo details: Personal Project, Chester County, PA.